Nine elite racers in North America vie for the $100,000 Idemitsu MX-5 Cup scholarship awarded to the one deemed most outstanding during the Mazda Road to 24 Shootout (MRT24) next week at Carolina Motorsports Park. Mazda Motorsports will help you get to know the most talented in America via our “Meet the Contender” series. Today, we introduce five of the nine contenders; tomorrow we introduce four.
Joshua Allan, accomplished racer, racing instructor and automotive engineer, has worked in the motor cities of America and Italy and is now headed to the 2015 Mazda Road to 24 (MRT24) Shootout.
Allan dreamt of working for Ferrari while growing up outside a small Sonoma County town. He pursued a degree in Mechanical Engineering at UCLA where he specialized in Computer Aided Design (CAD), and his early career brought him to Detroit to work in the U.S. auto industry and subsequently to Italy to achieve his dream of working for Ferrari at 24 years of age.
Working in the engineering offices of Scuderia Ferrari (Ferrari Formula 1) he participated in Michael Schumacher’s dominance from 2001 through 2003.
While at Ferrari, he experienced the joy of driving on snow and ice at his first driving school in Cortina. Subsequently, a Formula Ford racing school led to competition in the Italian Formula Ford Championship. He further developed driving and coaching skills as an instructor for Italy’s most established high performance driving school.
After a colleague introduced him to Ferrari’s chief test driver, there was interest in switching roles and developing road cars. This led to a role as a Maserati test driver.
“It was the experience of a lifetime,” said Allan. “My driving skills continued to grow while I gained knowledge in every facet of vehicle development. I also worked with the marketing and press departments and experienced the promotional aspects of the company. This helped me to expand my network into automotive media.”
His desire to get back into racing compelled him to return to the U.S. He explored new concepts in vehicle control and dynamics and supported development of vehicles for high-performance and motorsport. He worked with large manufacturers including BMW and was part of the Yokohama-sponsored team that won the Pikes Peak EV class two years in a row, setting records on both occasions.
Allan continued to hone his driving and coaching skills at NASA HPDE events. In 2011, he received the NASA Instructor of the Year award and in 2012 was back in a race car: a 3rd generation Mazda MX-5. His sights were set on earning a spot in the Mazda Club Racer Shootout (now the MRT24).
In his first year of racing, he won every regional PTD event he raced as well as the National Championship at Mid-Ohio. The following year, Joshua repeated the regional championship but came up short by a nose in the PTD National Championship. He prepared his MX-5 to championship winning specification in 2015 and regained the championship, leading to his selection as a finalist in the Mazda Road to 24 Shootout.